Helene

As a person from the planet Earth, designation human, one of my basic personality traits is that I want to feel enlivened. I want my time to mean something to myself and hopefully somebody else in the process. I want to always feel my creative juices flowing, that the time seem to disappear and that I love what I’m doing at any given moment – and I want this for both my workplace and my spare time.

This isn’t something that comes automatically for any of us. Who hasn’t experienced feeling burned out? Or may be restless because of a feeling of being disconnected or may be that we feel we should be doing something else, but not knowing what that “something else” is. Or may be you might be a manager and want to get your staff working more effectively. Or a teacher and/or a parent and want to know how to get more involved kids that do their chores and find learning to be interesting.

To put it simply, how do you motivate yourself (and/or the people around you).

“Drive” by Daniel Pink is a book that outlines research and scientific knowledge about how motivation works. It starts out talking about our old motivational system of “carrots and sticks”, use of bonuses and rewards and the reasons why these systems doesn’t work (except in very specific circumstances). Then he talks about how motivation actually works and the three elements neccessary for motivation. In the end he suggests tool kits for motivation based upon different circumstances.

It’s a good and interesting read, and I will certainly use it to become a better and happier person in what I do, no matter what, where and how I’m doing it.

Sometimes there are some items that just speaks for themselves. This one is from Multicom. Description entails…..

The Gentleman’s Ball Scratcher is definitely the present for the man who has everything! A gift aimed at the ‘Busy Male Executive’!

For the days when your own hands are just not precise enough, the Gentleman’s Ball Scratcher is in the shape of a delicate female hand, for those hard to reach places. The 9 inch handle provides excellent extra length to help get around difficult obstacles (beer bellies, old pizza, empty beer cans etc.) and provide the relief so many crave.

I have been working as a temporary help at Berggård Amundsen for the last 7 months and Thursday was my last day. I expected the day to be a bit sad, but because of the great people at BA, I leaved feeling happy. Nearing lunch, one of the people from the finance department got a hold of me, and gave me a very nice card and a gift – two wines and a chocolate. It was so unexpected, and I got so happy. It was really, really nice of them, and I spent some time talking to them.

Then I started walking toward the IT department, and was hijacked by my colleagues. When Fred came  (yes, Fred, just as in “The Flintstones” Fred. I can even see some resemblance in personality between IT Fred and Flintstones Fred, it’s really funny), he had a bag from Teknikmagasinet. Already, I started smiling because me and Fred has spent countless hours talking about items at Teknikmagasinet.

I opened the bag, and immediately started laughing hard, and blushing dearly. They had bought “Clone-a-willy” to me – as in, make your own vibrator! I have been in a long distance relationship for a little while, and of course they were only thinking of my own well-being. They could also tell me that it was possible to buy refill packets, and as Fred put it, I could create my own collection if I wanted of dildo’s of lover1, lover2, lover3 etc.

One of my colleagues had become very nervous that I might take this present wrongly, but it was hilarious. He who had bought it had ended up in a longer discussion with the sales person about how to create this dildo and told me what step (3!) where I had to be very careful. All in all we had a lot of fun just talking about that present, so much so that the second present didn’t get the same attention. A rocket launcher alarm clock! If the alarm clock goes/the countdown begins and I don’t stop or snooze it, the rocket will launch and the alarm will not stop until I put the rocket back in its place. Really cool!

To put it simply, I got presents that ensured I will have a very nice evening (chocolate, wine and dildo) and make sure that I wake up the morning afterwards

Afterwards we went out to lunch and we had a very nice time.

It was a really nice day, and I will miss them.

Some weeks ago I took a walk with my boyfriend in Stavanger. It was a beautiful day and we saw this boat with the name “Sea cougar”. It took me back to when I first met Espen in a wedding. Espen is 7 years younger than me, and we were both aware of it. After the wedding he followed me to the train station. I bought a ticket, and it was 10 minutes before the train would depart. I didn’t really know what to say to him and I felt awkward. There are some people and situations where my mind just goes blank, and this was one of them. Suffice to say the conversation didn’t flow of itself. We had been flirting on and off during the day, but when it was only us two there wasn’t much we had to talk about. So in this uncomfortable setting, waiting for the train to depart, it’s usual to get to know people by what their interests are. It’s a fairly easygoing question, but he manages to ask it this way:

“So what other interests do you have, except picking up younger boys?”

Seriously?????

And then, just before the train left he manages to tell me that I was totally uninteresting for him because I’m a vegetarian. When I got on that train I was so happy to get rid of him and had absolutely no interest in seeing him ever again. Good riddens!!!!!!

Somehow we still managed to get together. The cougar me

I came across these two handsome fellows the other day, but how decent of them to stand there in the windows with a towel around their waist. Otherwise I might take offence of viewing their  nakedness… all out there in the open!